DISPATCHES

WHY McKINNEY LOST;
LESSONS FOR PROGS.

While US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., considers whether to follow
up her re-election defeat in the Democratic primary with another try
for Congress or a Senate race in 2004 or switch to the Green Party to
run for president, Bruce A. Dixon, a former Chicago political
activist who volunteered for her unsuccessful campaign, said blacks
and progressives should stop making excuses for her defeat and get
back to the basics of electioneering. He volunteered to help
McKinney's campaign in suburban Atlanta during the last 10 days, he
wrote for www.blackcommentator.com, "because she spoke truth to
power." When the Right raised and bankrolled a "black puppet
candidate," Dixon volunteered despite the fact that his home was 35
miles from her district. But he wrote, "The campaign operation I
walked in on was heartbreakingly inept. There was no field operation
whatsoever. The McKinney campaign had failed to conduct a voter
registration drive in her district. They hadn't performed a
pre-election voter canvass in any parts of heavily black south
Dekalb, which should have been her base areas. These are the
organizing basics, the ABCs of electoral success for black
progressive candidates against opponents with more money and media.
Her campaign ignored the basics and it cost her. And all of us." He
said progressive candidates should take a lesson from McKinney's
defeat.

Dixon quoted US Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who, when
questioned on a radio show about McKinney's defeat, said: "It's not
enough to take principled and courageous stands on the issues. Black
and progressive elected officials have to know that when you speak
truth to power ... powerful interests will target you, will mobilize
their resources ... and come after you. We have to defend those
correct and principled positions by hitting the street and organizing
our own communities. ..." Dixon added, "This isn't new news. ...
Maxine didn't invent it ... She learned it just like the rest of us.
But since she said it so nicely let's call it 'Maxine's Rule.' You
fight the Right by hitting the streets and organizing your base."

After the election McKinney supporters blamed the Republican
crossover vote, outside money, white Democrats, the alliance of the
hard Right and Zionists and a universally hostile media, all of which
were important factors, Dixon said. When McKinney's dad, Billy, a
30-year Georgia state representative, lost in a runoff against a
white opponent, a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, in a 60%
black district, Dixon noted, the elder McKinney blamed black people
who "just didn't come out" for him and his daughter.

"As analysis, this is unacceptable," Dixon said. "It's way time
for organizers and activists to stop hiding behind the lame excuse
that our people just don't come out to vote. They come out when we
organize ourselves to register them and to turn them out. It ain't
rocket science, and we should not blame the people when we do not do
our own jobs." For more analysis of the Georgia 4th Congressional
District race see www.bdixon.net/mckinney-analysis.html.

'CLEAN MONEY' DOMINATES ARIZONA, MAINE ELECTIONS. In a US
political first, a majority of candidates for state offices in
Arizona and Maine are financing their campaigns solely with public
funds, reported Public Campaign (publicampaign.org), a group that
promotes public financing of elections. In Maine, 62% of all
candidates (231 out of 372) on the fall ballot are participating in
that state's Clean Elections system, which offers candidates the
option of receiving full public financing in exchange for limiting
their spending and rejecting private donations. In Arizona, 53% of
all the candidates (84 out of 158) are running "clean." These
candidates include two of the three major candidates for governor of
Arizona and 70% of all the contenders running for statewide offices.
Candidates had to gather thousands of $5 contributions from voters in
their district to qualify for public funding. More than 90,000 such
contributions were made in Arizona, along with about 30,000 in Maine,
a participation rate far exceeding the number of people who make
private contributions. More than half the Maine House and as much as
three-quarters of its Senate, along with 6 of 9 of Arizona's
statewide offices, will likely be held by candidates who ran
"clean."

R'S TARGET TRIAL LAWYERS. Republicans on Capitol Hill are
planning to take direct aim at one of the Democratic Party's biggest
benefactors -- trial lawyers -- by pushing legislation that would cap
medical malpractice awards. In a closed-door meeting in September,
House GOP leaders and business and healthcare industry lobbyists met
to map out a joint strategy to promote "tort reform." According to
National Journal's Congress Daily, lobbyists agreed to mount a
"vigorous" campaign in favor of a malpractice bill, a form of which
was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, which includes a cap
on punitive damages of $250,000 and a provision limiting payment for
attorneys.

Holly Bailey of the Center for Responsive Politics
(www.opensecrets.org) noted that the majority of trial lawyer money
routinely goes to Democrats. In the 2002 election cycle, lawyers and
law firms have contributed just over $50 million in soft money, PAC
and individual contributions, 70% to Democrats. Arrayed against the
lawyers (and their injured clients) are insurance companies and
hospitals as well as the American Medical Association, which
announced a $15 million campaign to cap malpractice costs.

"If the GOP is successful in making medical malpractice a major
issue before Election Day, the debate could help to close what has
been a growing rift between Republicans and the AMA," Bailey wrote.
"When the GOP took control of Congress in 1994, the AMA quickly
became one of the party's most loyal backers, annually sending more
than two-thirds of its contributions to Republicans. But that changed
during the 2000 election cycle, when doctors mostly sided with
Democrats on the issue of managed care reform. Since then, the AMA
largely has been on the fence when it comes to divvying up its
political donations. Republicans hope tort reform will change that."
See "The Blame Game" at www.opensecrets.org.

OIL GIANT LIABLE FOR FOREIGN GUARDS' ABUSES. In a landmark
decision hailed by human rights and corporate accountability
activists, the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled Sept. 18 that
oil giant Unocal can be sued for forced labor, rape, and murder
committed by Burmese soldiers guarding a major gas pipeline project
completed three years ago, Inter Press Service reported. The appeals
court overturned a ruling by a federal judge two years ago that the
victims of abuses committed by the military regime in Burma could not
sue the California-based company although they produced evidence
showing that Unocal knew about and benefited directly from the
troops' conduct. The three-judge appeals panel ruled that ''Because
Unocal knew the acts of violence would probably be committed, it
became liable as an aider and abettor when such acts of violence --
specifically, murder and rape -- were in fact committed,'' said the
court.

NO JEWISH GOP SURGE. Republican leaders hope that George W.
Bush's strong pro-Israel positions and leadership in the war on
terror will entice Jewish voters to vote GOP, but a new Gallup Poll
splashes cold water on those hopes. According to the survey, which
examines party identification by religion, "there was little
meaningful change in the ways in which Americans of any religious
leaning identified their basic political orientation after Sept. 11,"
Jewish Week reported Sept. 20. Republican Jewish voters remain below
20% despite a surge of news stories describing an impending shift to
the GOP in response to Bush's strong support for Israel's campaign
against suicide bombers and the growing pro-Israel zeal of
congressional Republicans, while there was relative silence on Israel
by congressional Democrats. A series of polls -- combined because
individual surveys do not include enough Jewish respondents to be
statistically reliable -- showed 50% of Jews surveyed claim
Democratic affiliation, about one-third call themselves independents
and only 17% identify as Republicans. In data through 2001, 73% of
Jews described themselves as moderate or liberal, and only 23% as
conservative, while 42% of Protestants and 34% of Catholics claimed
they were conservative.

REFORM COMPLETES BUCHANAN PURGE. The Reform Party has
ousted the last leaders tied to 2000 presidential candidate Pat
Buchanan and hopes to restore the organization that scored an
impressive third-party showing in the 1992 presidential election,
when Ross Perot headed the party, the Washington Times reported Sept.
17. Members from about 25 states at a convention in Colorado ousted
Gerald Moan, the national chairman, halfway through his two-year term
and install a new chairman, Lou Anne Jones, to serve out the term.
Jones said the Sept. 7 vote was the final step in clearing the party
of Buchananite leadership; she said most of the rank-and-file
Buchanan followers had already left the party. A power struggle in
2000 led to separate nominating conventions that produced two
nominees, Buchanan and John Hagelin, each of whom claimed to be the
party's nominee and wanted the $12.6 million in federal elections
money. Buchanan won that legal battle, but got less than 1% in the
election, costing the party the funds in 2004. As of the September
convention, Reform Party officials had $400 in their treasury. But
they hope some state organizations that disassociated themselves from
the Buchananite national party will now come back. An immediate test
will be in California, where the party needs 2% of the statewide vote
in this November's elections or increase to 1% of registered voters
to stay on the ballot.

GREENS, ADA DISPUTE OVER DEMOCRATS. The Green Party
launched a website (www.therealdifference.com) in response to
www.damnedbigdifference.org, a site hosted by Americans for
Democratic Action (ADA). The ADA site criticizes the Green claim that
the Democratic and Republican parties have largely converged on many
major issues and notes differences on such issues as reproductive
choice, environment, gay rights, gun control, health care,
international affairs, school vouchers, Social Security, taxes,
welfare, women's rights and workers' rights. The Green site
highlights issues where there is a consensus between the two major
parties, from "free trade" pacts, to national missile defense, to the
USA PATRIOT Act, to the maintenance of corporate HMO and insurance
control over health care.

The Southern California ADA chapter on September 9 authorized a
letter to the national organization criticizing the ADA web site. "By
posting such a site, the national ADA reveals its own hypocrisy and
true allegiance -- to a Democratic Party that has largely abandoned
the principles and positions ADA claims to support," said Donna Jo
Warren, Green candidate for lieutenant governor and a board member of
the Southern California ADA, which endorsed her candidacy. "When
progressives ignore and provide cover for bad Democratic positions,
it helps push the Democratic Party farther to the right ..."

NOBODY TOLD CONDOLEEZZA? National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice was "either amazingly misinformed or baldly
untruthful," Joe Conason wrote at Salon.com Sept. 19, when Rice
declared last May that nobody "could have predicted that these people
would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take
another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use
an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." Conason
noted that evidence revealed by the limited congressional
investigation into the intelligence failures "shows clearly that
American intelligence agencies received several warnings, over a
period of years, that al-Qaeda contemplated such an airborne attack."
He noted that most newspaper accounts spared Rice any comparison
between her excuses and the committee report's findings, but the
embarrassing videotape of her May remarks aired on the networks.

As more Republicans joined Democrats on the joint House-Senate
panel to ask the Senate to overrule Bush's claim of executive
privilege if the White House continues to stonewall, the
administration said Sept. 20 it would cooperate with an independent
commission to probe the attacks -- as long as the inquiry did not
examine the intelligence failures, a caveat that, the Washington Post
noted, led some Sept. 11 victims' families to dismiss the move as
meaningless. But Democrats said the decision to end months of
opposition to an independent inquiry made it likely Bush would
eventually endorse a probe that included intelligence failures.

CORN GROWERS NEED HELP. Keith Dittrich, a corn farmer from
Tilden, Neb., and president of the American Corn Growers Association
(ACGA) called on the US House to pass emergency legislation for
farmers and ranchers hit hard by drought in 2001 and 2002. The USDA
reported in August that net farm income in 2002 is expected to drop
by 23% from the 2001 level. In constant dollars, Dittrich said, 2002
would be the third worst year for the farm economy in 68 years. A
bipartisan drought disaster amendment passed the Senate 79-16 and
Reps. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., are sponsoring
a similar measure in the House but George W. Bush insists that the
drought does not warrant emergency assistance. "Rural America doesn't
have the time nor the luxury for a recess until this issue is
resolved," Dittrich said. See www.acga.org.

FRANKENFOODS DEVASTATE US FARMERS. Genetically modified
soy, corn and canola has cost the US economy at least $12 billion in
farm subsidies, lower crop prices, loss of major export orders and
product recalls, the British Soil Association reported. The Soil
Association conducted the study to convince British farmers to avoid
the mistakes made in the USA and Canada in accepting genetically
modified crops. "This report is proof that North Dakota farmers need
a moratorium on genetically modified wheat to protect us from further
economic devastation," said Gail Wiley, a North Dakota farmer and
member of the Western Organization of Resource Councils. According to
the report, from 1999-2001, the US paid an estimated $6 billion to
$10 billion in farm subsidies for corn and soybeans as a result of
low prices caused by the loss of trade due to genetically modified
crops. Within a few years of the introduction of genetically modified
corn, nearly the entire $300 million dollar annual US corn exports to
the European Union disappeared. "This report is a heads up to Montana
wheat farmers and the communities they support," said Helen Waller, a
wheat farmer from Montana and member of WORC. "Montana's economy can
expect the same kinds of losses if genetically engineered wheat is
introduced into the state." See www.worc.org.

WHAT LIB BIAS? A study of ABC World News Tonight, CBS
Evening News and NBC Nightly News in 2001 conducted for Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting shows that 92% of all US sources interviewed
were white, 85% were male and, where party affiliation was
identifiable, 75% were Republican. Big business also was
overrepresented as corporate representatives accounted for 7% of
sources, about 35 times more frequent than did union representatives'
0.2%. See www.fair.org.

KICK OPEN COG. The Congressional Oversight Group (COG),
comprised of House and Senate committee chairpersons and their
ranking counterpart on trade-related committees, was an attempt to
appease the fair trade movement's demand for public involvement and
accountability on trade agreements. It is supposed to hold US trade
negotiators accountable to the public and to making the process more
transparent as talks proceed on the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the
World Trade Organization (WTO). However, the first meeting with US
Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was closed to the public. Public
Citizen's Global Trade Watch urges calls to COG members via the
Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) to call for public meetings. For a
list of COG members call Trade Watch at 202-454-5103 or see
www.cispes.org.

PARTISAN CRIMINALS? With glee, Rush Limbaugh scored a
typical cheap shot when he told his national radio talk show audience
that at least five Yemeni-American members of the alleged al-Qaeda
cell near Buffalo were registered Democrats (Limbaugh's web site
announced, "Al-Qaeda Terrorists Urge: Vote Democrat!"), according to
thesmokinggun.com. As other right-wing talk show hosts have piled
onto the story, The Smoking Gun turned up the San Diego, Calif.,
voter registration card of David Westerfield, who, unlike the Buffalo
guys, has actually been found guilty of something -- the kidnapping
and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. "Now we're not sure what
conclusions can be drawn from the fact that this pervert Westerfield
is a Republican, but we're dying to hear Rush explain it all to us."
Buzzflash.com noted that former Waterbury, Conn., Mayor Philip
Giordano, the GOP's 2000 nominee for US Senate, is charged with
sexual abuse of 9- and 10-year-old children, and wondered, "Why isn't
FOX talking about this GOP creep?" Then Rack Jite of rackjite.com
recalled that while Ted Bundy was on his murder spree, torturing and
raping 33 women before killing them, he was not only a registered
Republican and GOP activist, but was also a paid employee of the
party (see www.crimelibrary.com). "In fact, a few of his first
murders were done while traveling for the Republican Party," Jite
noted, a political affiliation that was heretofore only a footnote in
Bundy's grisly career. "Who compared serial killing to Republican
politics? No one I can think of until TODAY."